


Strictly Ballroom

by sunflowerseedsandscience



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 11:32:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16809793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowerseedsandscience/pseuds/sunflowerseedsandscience
Summary: Scully comes across a gift certificate for ballroom dancing lessons, and invites Mulder to use it with her. Set in S3, post-Paper Clip.





	Strictly Ballroom

When Dana Scully had been a child, her mother had kept a sheaf of coupons in a drawer in the kitchen. Once a month, she would pull them out, go through them, and get rid of any that had expired- in the unlikely event, of course, that any of them _had_ expired. Maggie Scully, responsible for the household finances in Captain Scully’s absence, had stretched her husband’s modest Navy salary as far as she could to cover the needs of her four children, and fervently clipping coupons had been an integral part of that endeavor. Very few of them had ever gone to waste.

Her daughter follows a similar tradition, keeping coupons clipped to a magnet on her fridge… but unless they’re for discounts on takeout or dry cleaning, they generally go unused. Her lifestyle doesn’t leave much room for frivolity; there’s rarely time for things like movies or museum visits, and the kinds of restaurants where she and Mulder typically dine out aren’t likely to spend money on advertising, much less on circulating coupons. So at the end of every month, Scully transfers a handful of discount offers from the fridge to the recycling bin with a sigh, always promising herself that next month, she’ll spend her free time and money on _some_ thing that doesn’t involve greasy plastic containers or salvaging yet another ruined suit.

This coupon, though… technically, it’s not a coupon at all; it’s a gift certificate, and she finds the fact that it has an expiration date annoying. It had been a Christmas present from Ethan years ago, given in the final months of their relationship in an obvious attempt to inject some romance into what had become a blatant exercise in going through the motions.

Holding the gift certificate in her hand, weighing her options, Scully reflects that “going through the motions” is a pretty good descriptor for her entire life, these days. Ever since Melissa’s death, Scully feels… not paralyzed, exactly, but definitely hindered, bogged down like she’s walking through knee-deep water. The simplest of tasks require a disproportionate amount of energy and effort, to the point where she needs at least one full day’s rest after a case before she’s of any use to anyone again.

The most logical thing to do would be to give the gift certificate to someone else, but for the life of her, Scully can’t think who that would be. It’s an activity intended for couples, and Scully doesn’t know any, now that Ellen’s divorced. She’s sure at least some of her friends from med school have paired off by now… but she’s not sure where any of them are now, and she’s not exactly keen on the idea of looking them up just to demonstrate the degree to which her work has taken over her entire life.

Thinking of work, Scully realizes there might be one possible option… that is, if she can work up the nerve to ask.

———————-

“Ballroom dancing? With you?”

Mulder’s eyebrows could not possibly travel any further up his forehead, and Scully immediately curses herself for her terrible judgement. What had made her think it would be even remotely appropriate to ask him to do something like this? It’s so far outside the bounds of what’s normal and comfortable for them, and for her to spring it on him like this, when they’re both still treading so carefully after the loss of her sister and his father….

“You know what, forget about it.” she says, reaching out and trying to take back the gift certificate in Mulder’s hands. “I didn’t want it to go to waste, but it’s not like I spent my own money to buy it, so I’m not out anything.” But Mulder holds the piece of paper up, out of her reach.

“Hang on a second,” he says. “I didn’t say I didn’t want to. I’m just surprised, that’s all. You didn’t have anyone else you wanted to do it with?” Scully rolls her eyes.

“Mulder, with all the time we spend together, don’t you think you’d know if I was seeing anyone? No, there’s no one else around for me to take, and I couldn’t think of anyone to give it to.” She bites her lip as an unwelcome thought occurs to her. “Unless… there’s someone you’d like to use it with?”

“The people who run my favorite hotlines tend to discourage their employees from meeting clients in person,” he says, quirking an uneven smile at her, and she laughs, her nerves calming. It’s so good to hear him joke; there’s been so little of that since his father’s death. "Sure, I’ll do it, Scully.“ She smiles widely at him, surprised.

"You will?”

“Yeah. Could be fun. And besides-” He elbows her, grinning- “Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll have to go undercover as some high society couple, and this’ll come in handy.”

“Great!” Scully takes the gift certificate back, tucking it into her briefcase. “I’ll call the studio and schedule the classes, then. Are there any nights of the week that won’t work for you?”

“Monday nights I usually hang with the Gunmen, and I play ball on Thursdays,” he says. “But the rest of my week….” He waggles his eyebrows playfully at her. “The rest of my week is all yours.”


End file.
